1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method for reformatting information from the World Wide Web (WWW or Web) so that it can be more effectively used on mobile devices.
2. Description of the Related Art
The Internet, fueled by the popularity of the Web, has exhibited significant growth over the past few years. At present, to access the information on the Web, users typically use standard computer equipment, such as a home personal computer with a display and modem, and an Internet connection.
There have been efforts to expand the number of users and the ease with which they access the Internet. For example, several companies have developed television set-top boxes that permit users to browse or “surf” the Internet from their television sets. In addition, telephone companies have joined with software developers to allow mobile communication devices such as cellular telephones, pagers, and personal digital assistants (PDAs—such as the 3COM Palm Pilot) to access some features of the Internet.
Presently, several types of Internet connections are available. For example, to use an Internet connection from Internet Service Providers (ISPs), the user dials into a computer at the ISP's facility using a modem and standard telephone line. The ISP's computer in turn provides the user with access to the Internet. Through this Internet connection, the user can access information on the Web using a computer program called a “Web browser,” such as for example the Netscape Navigator™ from Netscape Communications Corporation. The Web browser is a software program that allows a user to view the data received from an Internet site location. To accomplish this, the user gives the Web browser a Uniform Resource Locator (URL) for an object on the Internet, for example, a data file containing information of interest. The document is referred to as a “Web page,” and the information contained in the Web page is called content. Web pages often refer to other Web pages using “hypertext links”, also referred to as “hyper-links”, or simply as “links”. The links are typically associated with words, phrases, or images representing the other pages in a form that gives the browser the URL for the corresponding Web page when the user selects a link.
Links are made possible by building Web pages using a Hypertext Markup Language (HTML), an evolving markup language standard which is used to construct documents in a uniform, standardized format so they may be accessed by Web browsers and displayed for the user. HTML is an ASCII text-based markup language which defines page or frame formats used to display the HTML elements. To provide the hypertext linking, most documents contain “anchor” words, phrases or images. The anchors serve as visible starting points for links. The anchor, or the HTML <A> element, includes a URL that uniquely identifies the endpoint of the link, or the destination document or Web page that will be activated when the link is selected.
Once the user selects a URL for a site either directly or through a link, the URL can be used to identify a specific host computer on the Internet called a “Web Server,” along with a location of the Web page located on the Web Server. The Web browser retrieves the Web page and displays it for the user.
Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) is a common network protocol used by the browser to access and link users with various other Web pages or sites referenced by the original Web page. HTTP requires a program running on the host computer that understands and responds to the protocol or formatting of the link's content. The file retrieved might be, for example, an HTML file, a graphics file, a sound file, a PowerPoint™ file, or a word processing file. Whether the file can be retrieved or handled depends on the features and capabilities of the browser.
When a browser requests a specific URL, it sends the request to the Web server. The Web server receives the request and attempts to fill it. There are several ways the user requests can be filled. For example, Web servers can translate a request such as “http://www.recipes.com/recipes/soup.htm” into a search for a physical file on that server. It would start from the base category for the domain and then apply the path that was requested. In this example, the Web server would look for a category called “recipes” and then look for a file called “soup.htm” within that category. If the file was found it would be passed back, without modification, to the requesting browser. In this way, the URL can be thought of as a specific file sitting on a server, or host computer.
HTML can be translated from other standard generalized markup languages, such as Wireless Markup Language (WML). WML was developed by the Wireless Application Protocol (WAP) Forum, which was founded by Ericsson, Motorola, Nokia and Unwired Planet. WML was developed as a global wireless protocol specification intended for use in specifying content and user interface for narrowband devices, including cellular telephones and pagers, to allow users mobile access to the resources of the Internet. WML is based on XML (eXtensible Markup Language).
While computer terminals and other devices that are configured to receive HTTP signals and HTML files may utilize the above methods to access and view the Internet data, the display capabilities for on screen-display mobile devices, such as cellular phones, allow only a limited view of the HTML files.
Recently, systems have been developed to make browsing the Web more feasible for handheld devices. One such system, referred to as “Satchel”, was disclosed by employees of Xerox Research Center Europe. See, Mike Flynn, et al., “The Satchel System Architecture: Mobile Access to Documents and Services”, Mobile Networks & Applications, Vol. 5, Issue 4, pp. 243-258, December 2000. The Satchel Browser provides the ability to browse categories for documents and also provides the ability to invoke services, such as printing, or faxing, once the document has been retrieved.
The Satchel Browser typically displays categories, rather than the text of documents themselves because of limits of transmission bandwidth, storage requirements, screen size and resolution on mobile handheld devices. For example, with a pager-type mobile device which has a two line screen, as illustrated in FIG. 1, displaying an entire Web page would not be desirable. A mobile device with a larger display and capabilities, such as the Nokia 9000 Communicator shown in FIG. 2, makes viewing larger blocks of text possible, but a display which includes four to six lines as opposed to two still is not a desirable viewing area for an entire Web page.
FIG. 3 illustrates how Satchel operates to provide a category of documents to the display of the Nokia 9000 Communicator, shown in FIG. 2. Upon turning on the mobile device the Satchel start menu is activated to allow a series of user selected categories to be displayed. One of the categories can then be selected by the user and opened by selecting the “Open” command to provide a display of the contents of the category. To return to the previous category, a user selects the “Close” command. The contents of a category may be files, or links which can be used to identify documents in a single line.
Once a document is selected, the “Services” command can be selected to provide a list of services which can be performed for any file identified. An example of the services provided is illustrated in FIG. 4. As shown, once the file is opened, it can be printed, faxed or emailed by selecting one of items shown. Viewing is also made available, but upon selecting viewing the content of the file is provided in a linear manner to the limited sized screen for the user a line at a time. With the limited viewing area, it is expected that the user would prefer to use one of the other services to obtain the contents of the file rather than viewing.
The Satchel system uses a format termed Halibut which is translated from HTML. The Halibut translation does not allow large images, movies, or other non-HTML files to be transmitted over the low-bandwidth link to the mobile device.
Further, the documents provided for selection in the Satchel system are predefined by a user and stored in a category structure in a system repository. In creating a selection list of links for documents, this predefined category structure within the Satchel repository is used. It is a disadvantage of the system that the user is required to pre-define a category structure and select from this structure instead of navigating the hyperlink structure already contained in the hypertext content. Moreover, if the user wishes to find document B that is linked within document A, then the user must read through document A's content on a small display until the link comes into view. In this way, the Web page content itself provides a hindrance for the user in making a quick link selection on a mobile display.
Another system for providing Web access for handheld devices is Mobile Google. Mobile Google uses a search engine to address the problem of link selection. The user enters a search term and the system presents a search result list of links to Web pages. A link from the list can be selected whereupon the Web page content is displayed in a linear manner according to the constraints of the limited sized screen. Again, the amount of text in a Web page leads to viewing a few lines at a time on mobile devices, and makes selecting a link within the page difficult. Further, a disadvantage of this and other search-based techniques is that in order to obtain a short list of precise results the user must enter many terms on a device where input is difficult.
Systems such as Mobile Google and Satchel provide a mechanism for mobile e-commerce (or m-commerce) in that they let users select a bit of content from a mobile device. However, the disadvantage of these and other current systems is that selection of the content is constrained to predefined lists or large numbers of search results. In addition, the services or operations permitted for either the Satchel system or Mobile Google are limited.